| Passionate about Catering in Multi-Unit Restaurant Operations

May 01 2013

Catering Leadership, Catering Sales, Multi-Unit Restaurant Catering

Restaurant Catering Workshop Filling up – Chicago, June 6, 2013

Our MMS Catering Institute’s workshops series sure are popular! Book your spot today and energize your catering sales!

We will have over 100 of our restaurant industry’s best catering sales managers in attendance. We have a wonderful day planned. Here is what you can expect to learn:

Rockstar Canvassing and Lead Generation Techniques
Time tested Consultative Selling Strategies
Rock Solid Cold Calling Techniques
How to identify different kinds of restaurant catering consumers and the top 10 things that motivate them to buy
Great ideas on how to organize and run effective sales meetings for your catering sales teams
Transparency into the “day in the life” of a successful catering sales manager

This workshop is open to all members of the restaurant industry and will be very focused on increasing incremental catering sales for your restaurant brand.

We do have limited space, so please reserve your spot today. The cost is $249.00 per attendee, and if your company has more than 4 attendees, there is a group discount available.

Hope to see you in Chicago!

Brentwood Country Club gets new caterer (newsday.com)
Successful Catering Tips for Restaurants (philadelphiarestaurantconsultant.wordpress.com)
Catering Marketplace CaterCow Gobbles Up New Cities (thenextweb.com)

Tagged Advertising and Marketing, business, Cater, Event Planning, MMS Catering Institute, restaurant, Sales management, Workshop

Apr 26 2013

Box Lunch Business? Think Volume

I’m just on my way home from a fantastic week on the road, working on MonkeyMedia Software and our Catering Institute! I really enjoyed my time at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Scottsdale and then a fantastic visit with a 500 unit restaurant chain where my team and I focused on helping them with their catering operations for both their corporate stores and their franchisees.

I was happy that my presentation at RLC was so well attended. So many people gave me fantastic feedback. This is what I love about my work. Inspiring others to try something that they may not have tried before. Helping them to think outside their box, and perhaps give them a little something to hold onto. It’s even better when they apply the business strategy to their own restaurants and it works!

When I woke up this morning, there was a fantastic article published on my talk on www.monkeydish.com. What a nice surprise.

Like any business, the strategy that you take to market is critical to your success. Once you move forward, you become path dependent. It’s tough to shift gears. Not impossible, but tough. This got me thinking about the box lunch business out of restaurant operations.

The box lunch business, in my opinion, is a “business within a business”. It requires a manufacturing mentality, to really be successful. Think volume!

As restaurateurs we have so many things to consider. When it comes to catering out of our restaurants, we are not like other caterers. We’ve got our own challenges. Different than theirs. Because we are layering catering on top of existing restaurant infrastructure, we have to consider our operations very carefully.

If you are going to be in the box lunch business, think about volume. For all your other catering orders, try platters. Your operations team will thank you for that strategic decision!

Enjoy your weekend.

Menu development in a multi-unit restaurant catering operation (erledardick.com)
Save The Date June 6,2013 – Chicago Restaurant Catering Workshop (erledardick.com)
Successful Catering Tips for Restaurants (philadelphiarestaurantconsultant.wordpress.com)

Tagged box lunches, Cater, Hospitality, Menu, restaurant

Apr 16 2013

On the Cusp of Something Huge – Keepin’ on

Last week was just a great week at MonkeyMedia Software!

There are days when I just don’t know how I am going to get to “the end” of this project. Whatever that means. All good things come to an end at some point! Isn’t that part of the plan?

All successful entrepreneurs plan for an exit at some point and time. Me? Well it dawned on me that it’s wholly possible that I am 15 years into a 25 year process! That would mean, that I’ve got at least 10 more years in front of me to do my part in building our organization, and developing the vision of catering in the restaurant community.

If that’s the case, then what do I do to keep myself going? To keep it fresh? To keep it exciting? And mostly, to keep it real?

Real people, real companies, real revenues, real expenses. The never ending pursuit of creating value for our customers, restaurant operators.

I have learned that it’s not just about doing the right things. No. It’s about doing the right things, at the right time! Markets are moving, and so must we.

So, last week I received a wonderful note from one of our customers. They have 170 restaurants in the QSR space. We’ve been working through their catering opportunities and deploying our software right smack in the middle of their organization. It’s a pleasure for us to work with such a committed, professional and great group of people.

I sent a thank you email and the note I received back really energized me, so I thought I’d share it with you. Apply it to your own business:

Our client said,

“We are on the cusp of something huge!”

Well, that’s all I needed last week. I’m hanging onto those kind words and am going to do everything I can to make that dream come true.

Keepin’ on. Let’s talk restaurant catering.

Keepin’ It Positive (newcollegethesisblog.wordpress.com)